


a rose by any other name

by starsupernova



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Forbidden Love, Minor Character Death, Princess and Knight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 01:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5987098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsupernova/pseuds/starsupernova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She sits on the floor in front of him, legs crossed. “Hello, Chat.”</p><p>The boy looks up, green eyes startlingly bright through the pitch black mask surrounding his eyes.</p><p>He smiles and takes her hand, kissing it gently.</p><p>“Hello, my princess.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	a rose by any other name

**Author's Note:**

> hello! i love marichat to death so i hope you enjoy this!
> 
> the title is from romeo and juliet, yes, you can kill me now

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a child, merely six years old in her fancy pink birthday dress, when she meets him. **  
**

There is a boy before her, head bowed and right knee touching the floor.

“Your knight,” her mother—the queen—says quietly.

She looks up with wide innocent eyes at her smiling parents. “What’s his name?”

“Chat,” the voice comes from a tall lady behind the boy. “Chat Noir.”

Marinette stares at the boy, a mop of blond hair and cat ears hiding his face from her. She takes a few tentative steps forward.

Chat Noir.

She sits on the floor in front of him, legs crossed. “Hello, Chat.”

The boy looks up, green eyes startlingly bright through the pitch black mask surrounding his eyes.

He smiles and takes her hand, kissing it gently.

“Hello, my princess.”

(He never stops calling her that, even though she longs to hear her name fall from his lips.)

* * *

The palace is supposed to be Marinette’s house but her and her family live in a large cozy home minutes away from the towering castle.

“It’s better this way,” her father says and she agrees.

Marinette’s room—though not small by any measure—is the smallest one in the house and its cream colored walls are littered with book clippings and drawings. Her desk is neat and organized, with a framed painting of her and Alya at the annual fair propped up in the corner. The bed is large and comfortable, with three decorative pillows and a red and black comforter, and the wardrobe is even more expansive, filled with all the clothes needed in Marinette’s busy life.

There are many, many other things but there is also the small hatch underneath the couch and the picture she keeps safe, hidden away from the world.

She still remembers the day before he left for the war, sitting him down on the armchair, getting her canvas and paintbrush ready, turning the lock to the door.

Painting him—because even though he was going away, she cannot live without his face in her heart and woven through the painting.

It has been nearly two years since he went to go fight.

He is her knight but he is the most skilled knight in the kingdom, so they sent him off to a raging battlefield with barely a day for Marinette to say goodbye.

Chat Noir.

She doesn’t know what she feels for him other than that he is hers. He is her knight.

It’s his birthday, she knows, as she looks at the calendar on her wall. Eighteen years old.

The past twelve years come to haunt her as she sleeps, because war is inevitable—as is death.

* * *

There was blood. More of it than Chat had ever seen in his life. The war was greatly in their favor, no doubt, but that didn’t mean the bloodshed on either side stopped.

“Bubbler?” Chat whispers, looking down at the body at his feet. Golden brown eyes crack open. “Nino? Nino!”

Chat is on his knees—god, there’s so much blood—and white noise is clouding his ears and he can’t hear his own screams.

“Nino, don’t die on me, I swear to god, Nino,” Chat mumbles, his voice tumbling into prayers and promises.

“Chat…Adrien.”

Chat’s dirt and blood stained hand closes around Nino’s own. “What is it?”

 _Tell me you’ll live, you’re my best friend, please please live_ —

“Tell Ayla...tell her that...I love h—” Nino whispers and then coughs violently, blood spurting from his mouth.

Chat’s hand tightens. “She knows, Nino, she knows.”

“T-tell her anyway.”

Tears well up in his eyes and he blinks them away. “I will.”

Life slips away faster that Chat knows and soon he’s hunched over a lifeless body and crying harder than he ever has before.

The white noise blocks out the screams from the battlefield (but not the scent of blood in the air).

It is much later, after the enemy raises the white flag of surrender and after the mourning and the heartbreak and after the victory party, that Chat allows his thoughts to drift to Marinette.

* * *

Soon after the news of the war’s end and soon after the news of Chat’s return, Marinette hears the news of Nino’s death.

She lets Alya cry in her arms. She listens to the speeches at his funeral. She watches Chat’s blank and broken face from the other side of the casket.

She feels helpless, lying on the bed in her room and curling her hands into the bedsheets and wishing she could be six again—

There’s someone at her window and he tumbles in without a word, taking his place curled on top of a pillow next to Marinette’s head.

Black Cat is a fitting name, though Chat seems much more like the sun to her.

He’s still wearing the ears and the mask and Marinette doubts she’s ever seen him without them.

She reaches up and runs a hand through his hair and traces around his mask with her fingers.

He watches her quietly, reverently.

It’s intimate in a way that Marinette is with no one else. She doesn’t know if she’s in love with him but her heart wants to burst because he’s back.

She doesn’t know if he’s in love with her, but he lets her touch him and she lets him touch her.

“I wish I could have saved him.”

Chat’s voice is choked and bitter and laced with pain.

Marinette wraps her arms around his form. “I know.”

“I’m so pathetic.”

She brushes away the tear slipping down his cheek. “You’re so strong.”

“I’m not.”

She tightens her hold.

“I’m not,” he repeats and Marinette hopes with all her heart that her actions can say what her words cannot.

“My brave, beautiful knight,” Marinette whispers, just quietly enough so Chat does not hear.

* * *

“Chat?”

“Yes, my princess?”

“What if I don't want to get married to him?”

They're on a bumpy carriage ride to the neighboring kingdom, where Marinette’s father has found her a suitor—the crown prince.

“I suppose that your father will find you another.”

A lump forms in Marinette’s throat.

“What if I don't want to get married to any of them?”

A pause.

“I'm afraid it's the duty of a princess to get married to strengthen her nation.”

Marinette scoffs and an oddly sad smile forms on Chat’s lips.

(Eight year olds’ promises live on.

Marinette had been cleaning her room and Chat had curled up on the throw pillow on her armchair and said in a lilting voice, “I'm going to marry you when we grow up.”

And Marinette had responded with a “sure” and a smile and continued on her way.)

She wonders if Chat still remembers it.

* * *

The crown prince is nice, but Chat knows that Marinette can tell that the prince would do anything to not marry her, so she declines the invitation politely.

Chat tries not to smile. He still remembers their promise.

A love between a princess and a knight is forbidden and they both know it, but they still skirt along that line between platonic and romantic, between friendship and love.

The king and the queen are tolerant and caring but not so much as to sacrifice a good alliance for something as petty as _love_.

(Marinette’s parents had fallen in love after marriage, and they expect their daughter to do the same.)

 _Don't fall in love_ , Nathalie tells him.

 _Fall in love with me_ , Marinette seems to call.

“Are you alright, princess?” Chat asks softly to the dazed girl sitting beside him.

Her eyes lose the glaze and she turns to Chat. “I was just wondering—”

She never gets to say it, because the carriage rattles and lurches to the right side and Chat grabs Marinette and tumbles them both out of the carriage. The carriage tips over into its side, the arrow-impaled driver lying motionless. The horse, with a jerk, breaks free of its bonds and whinnies, dashing off in the other direction.

 _I should have been watching out the window_ , Chat thinks in a panic, but instead he was worrying about love and this is why Nathalie is right, _love is just a distraction_.

Chat pulls Marinette to her feet and catches sight of a flicker in the dark warm night; a flare being sent into the sky from the clearing ahead.

“Chat, what the hell is t—”

A noise like a whistle spins from the left and Chat jumps to action, tackling Marinette to the ground.

The arrow slices across Chat’s shoulder blades and leaves a scorching wound behind. He resists crying out in pain and rolls off of Marinette.

“Sorry,” he says breathlessly and then he’s up on feet and whipping the first throwing knife out of his belt. He aims and it hisses through the air to the area where the arrow had been shot from a few feet away, where the shadows in the trees cloud any possibility of sight.

A pained sound comes from the direction seconds later, indicating that Chat had hit his mark, so Marinette picks herself off of the ground and lets Chat take her into the trees, where the horse had run off to.

They move quickly and silently, Marinette throwing off her heels as they ran, and they find the horse soon enough, grazing on the grassy ground.

“You okay, princess?” Chat asks, his voice coming out rough and grainy. She nods, tightening her grip on his hand, when a figure jumps out from behind them.

Chat is down in seconds as his legs are kicked out from under him but he drags his assailant down with him, slitting the man’s throat with his larger blade. The man falls silent and Chat pushes him away in time to see another identically dressed person yank Marinette’s hair as she struggles to get away from him.

Chat’s eyes darken in fury and he takes out his second throwing knife and aims, until the attacker pulls Marinette close enough so that Chat can barely register who is who in the dark.

He can't take the risk.

He returns the knife to its scabbard.

“What do you want from her?” Chat asks, taking a step closer. The man retaliates by pulling himself and Marinette back.

“You certainly are a good fighter, Chat Noir.”

Chat doesn't react to the comment, but instead tightens his fists at his side. “Let go of her.”

A cloud moves across the sky and suddenly the moonlight is shining brightly on them. The light highlights Marinette’s features and Chat can see her mouthing words to him, while trying to break her arms free from the hold.

The man smiles, and it's surprisingly pleasant for someone who is definitely a killer. “Oh, I won't hurt you, I just want the girl. Let me take her and I'll leave you alone.”

Chat wants to move forward, wants to take him out, but Marinette is right there and he could never forgive himself if he hurt her.

“Chat, go. I would never be able to forgive myself if I hurt you,” Marinette says almost pleadingly and it aches at Chat’s heart but he doesn't move.

Love is a distraction, but it sure as hell is a great motivation.

“Are you sure you could defeat me?” Chat asks the man and the man’s smile widens.

“Of course.”

The corner of Chat’s lips twitch up. “Then I'll fight you for her. To the death. That is unless you're going to be a coward.”

The man’s eyes harden. “Okay, Chat Noir.”

Chat just smiles. “What's your name?” he asks cordially, but his voice is metallic.

“Hawk Moth,” the man says and Chat files it away into his memory.

* * *

Hawk Moth insists on tying Marinette to the tree and Chat resists, but the determined look Marinette gives him is enough to make him acquiesce.

“Weapons?” Hawk Moth asks and Chat shrugs, drawing out his sword. He hasn't used it yet throughout the fight so it’s still shining sharp metal and the simple hilt gleamed with the sole gemstone set in the middle.

Hawk Moth pulls his own sword out, and it is significantly larger than Chat’s own, but Chat has fought against swords twice its size.

He flicks a look to Marinette— _she is so so brave_ , he can't help but think—and she smiles at him.

Hope.

He will _win_. He will bring Marinette back to him.

* * *

It's a blur from then on—cuts, stabs, parries, slices. Chat remembers blood and dizziness and sliding a hidden knife over to Marinette for her to cut out of her bonds. He remembers falling to his knees as Marinette whirls the knife into Hawk Moth’s heart.

But now he's so so dizzy and Marinette is pressing cold kisses into his forehead and wrapping his wounds in scraps of her torn skirt.

“It's okay, Chat. We’ll get home,” she says soothingly and Chat is so in love with her in that moment, but he is still exhausted.

Marinette’s eyes are still filled to the brim with panic and she helps Chat onto the horse, which was surprisingly calm throughout the ordeal. She climbs on next, in front of him, and wraps Chat’s arms around her waist.

“We’re going home now,” she whispers to him and pats the horse gently to spur its slow movement. Chat sways backward and then forwards, his head falling onto Marinette’s shoulder.

She swears she hears “I love you” fall from his lips, but then she shakes her head and continues on through the night, her face set into steel.

* * *

It's nearly two weeks later when Chat shows up at Marinette’s window again.

There's still a few bandages on him, so it takes a bit for Marinette to realize that he's not wearing his mask and his ears and his eyes are shining green and bright.

She is in love with him.

He crawls onto the bed where she’s sitting and into her lap and Marinette smiles fondly down at him. Her heart physically aches, and she loves him so so much.

“Chat?” she asks softly and Chat sits up, wrapping his legs around Marinette’s waist.

“Please. Call me Adrien.” And he presses their lips together in a searing kiss.

“Adrien,” she whispers in a rush of breath as they part. “It suits you.”

“Marinette, I'm in love with you,” he says and Marinette's heart jumps to her throat—he said her name, _finally_ —so she kisses him again.

“I love you, too, Adrien. Oh, god, I love you so much.”

Marinette pushes Adrien flat against the bed and leans over him, pressing kisses down his neck and across his collarbone.

Adrien’s back arches and he shudders beneath her, running his hands up her back and into her hair. “Marinette, I thought I’d lost you—”

Marinette returns to Adrien’s lips and gives him a single firm kiss. “You will never lose me, Adrien. I will always be here.”

Adrien notices that he's crying and he laughs as Marinette wipes them away with her thumbs. She presses her foreheads against his and their breathing falls into unison.

“You know we can't do this, right?” Adrien says after a few seconds of silence and Marinette’s heart seizes up in her chest.

“I love you,” she chooses to say and Adrien smiles a small wistful smile in response.

After all, forbidden love is better than no love at all.

**Author's Note:**

> my [tumblr](http://stxrsupernova.tumblr.com/) & my [twitter](https://twitter.com/kiribakus)


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